Travellers at Gatwick face a second day of camping out

Wednesday 1 December 2010 09:09 BST

Thousands of passengers stranded at Gatwick faced another night of bedding down there after re-opening was ruled out until at least 6am tomorrow.

Mike Perry, 26, from Wimbledon, was travelling with two friends to Calgary in Canada to work as a ski instructor for five months. He said the prospect of spending 24 hours at the airport was "pretty terrible".

He added: "Calgary has lots more snow than this and I bet they don't have the same problems."

His friend Nick Rumbles, 21, from Oxford, said they were unlikely to get any compensation: "My insurance company said I might get £20 for every 12 hours I'm delayed but my excess is £50 so it's pretty useless."

Carol Lynch, 66, from Newmarket, said the situation at the airport was "a shambles". She said: "We set off at lunchtime yesterday and only got here at 10.30pm. They said go home, but it seems they don't have any kind of contingency plan. It's shocking really."

An operations manager for Ryanair was among the thousands stranded. The airline worker, responsible for scheduling flights, was forced to sleep on the floor as he was unable to return to Dublin where he is based.

The man, who asked not to be named, said he was willing to wait until tomorrow rather than try to catch a flight from another London airport. "It is not the airlines' fault — it is the weather. Britain is just not prepared for it."

An airport spokesman said: "Gatwick has been disproportionately affected by the weather conditions with approximately six inches on the ground and further heavy snow forecast this afternoon and into this evening."

Some flights were diverted to Luton earlier today with passengers being driven by coach to Gatwick.